The Searchers (1956)

This poll’s last western standing, John Ford’s sweeping, stirring rescue-or-revenge quest remains a film of magnificent mystery and poetry.

Cinema’s poet of the Wild West, John Ford already had countless westerns (among over 100 films) under his belt before reteaming with regular star John Wayne for this disturbing story of racism, obsession and revenge.

Intending to kill his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wood) when he finds her, assuming her long since defiled by her Comanche kidnappers, morally complex Ethan Edwards is the role that convinced many that Wayne could truly act. Ford sets the hulking actor against the awe-inspiringly rugged terrain of Arizona’s Monument Valley and, in the iconic final shot, frames him within the doorway of a homestead, standing outside on the cusp of a civilisation where he can never fit in. It is one of the medium’s most unforgettable images of isolation.

“The iconic image of Ethan Edwards framed in the doorway, the expanse of the West stretching behind him, is as lyrical as it is telling. A relic of the past, he cannot cross over the threshold into the civilised world. He has helped to preserve a world he cannot be a part of any longer. Racist and unyielding, Ethan is not likeable and his redemption seems impossible. But Ford holds audiences in his visual and narrative thrall to the very end so that when the door shuts on Ethan, it's hard not to think about those who get left behind when the world moves on.” Domino Renee Perez

“Still mesmerising and full of mystery.” Christian Viviani

“Perhaps the first, and greatest, revisionist western.” Jon Towlson

“I cannot imagine American cinema without John Ford who, among other things, created and defined the western. This is the supreme masterpiece of the genre, forever compelling and moving, superb in every department, including John Wayne’s greatest performance and arguably the most memorable final shot in all of cinema.” Angie Errigo

“In The Searchers, Ford not only achieves the pinnacle of the western – the most influential and exemplary movie genre in history, to which no other director contributed nearly as many canonical texts – but also inscribes within the film an astonishing critique of his own life’s work up until that point. A grand, brutal and fearless work.” James Schamus

“It has me the moment the door opens. Infuriatingly flawed, but beautiful.” Tom Ryan

“The essence of the American Myth in one film.” Andreas Kilb

“The Searchers is a true Fordian tour de force on the ethical and political conceptions and misconceptions of his own films. It is also an anticipatory model of the modern American epic.” Eduardo Stupía

“John Ford’s Homeric milestone about the loneliness of men and the inability to settle down.” Milan Pavlovic

“Its redface casting and other representational archaisms may rankle contemporary sensibilities, but this stirring, stunningly visualised western saga remains a profoundly ambivalent exploration of both the noblest and darkest impulses that lie at the heart of American history and consciousness.” Martin Rubin

1956 USA
Directed by
John Ford
Written by
Frank S. Nugent
Featuring
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
Running time
117 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for The Searchers

Critics

Ian Aitken
Hong Kong
João Antunes
Portugal
Ali Arikan
Turkey
Eddie Averill
USA
César Ballester
Spain/UK
João Pedro Bénard
Portugal
Marten Blomkvist
Sweden
Tara Brady
Ireland
Gian Piero Brunetta
Italy
Ed Buscombe
UK
Per Juul Carlsen
Denmark
Max Carpenter
US
Giulio Casadei
Italy
Massimo Causo
Italy
Peggy Chiao
Taiwan/China
Edo Choi
USA
Pablo Conde
Argentina
John Conomos
Australia
Michel Demopoulos
Greece
Agnes Devictor
France
Thomas Doherty
USA
Nenad Dukić
Serbia
Pierre Eisenreich
France
Angie Errigo
USA/UK
Elsa Fernández-Santos
Spain
Jean-Michel Frodon
France
Ka Ming Fung
Hong Kong
Pierre Gabaston
France
Rubén García López
Spain
Luke Gibbons
Ireland
Steph Green
UK
Tom Gunning
USA
Molly Haskell
USA
Annika Haupts
Germany
Carlos F. Heredero
Spain
Sam Ho
Hong Kong
José Antonio Hurtado Alvarez
Spain
Kent Jones
USA
Richard T Kelly
UK
Andreas Kilb
Germany
Peter Körte
Germany
Richard Koszarski
USA
Jay Kuehner
USA
Hans Langsteiner
Austria
Jean-Marc Leveratto
France
Manuel J Lombardo
Spain
Frédéric Maire
Switzerland
Roberto Manassero
Italy
Gustavo Martín Garzo
Spain
Emanuela Martini
Italy
Brian McFarlane
Australia
Carlos Muguiro
Spain
Lynda Myles
UK
Mark Naglazas
Australia
Constantine Nasr
USA
José Oliveira
Portugal
Jan Olsson
Sweden
Milan Pavlovic
Germany
Jaime Pena
Spain
Olivier Père
France
Julio Pérez Perucha
Spain
Domino Renee Perez
USA
Xavier Pérez
Spain
Nenad Polimac
Croatia
José Quental
Brazil
Behzad Rahimian
Iran
Esteve Riambau Möller
Spain
Martin Rubin
USA
Céline Ruivo
France
Tom Ryan
Australia
Kat Sachs
USA
James Schamus
USA
Eduardo Stupía
Argentina
Jon Towlson
UK
Christian VIVIANI
France
Charles Whitehouse
UK
Willi Winkler
Germany
John Wrathall
UK
John Wyver
UK
Emilie Yeh Yueh-Yu
China/Hong Kong

Directors

Frank Beauvais
France
Guillaume Brac
France
Paul Bush
UK
John Carpenter
USA
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Chad
Stanley Kwan
Hong Kong
Carlos Marqués-Marcet
Spain
Amir Naderi
Iran/USA
Walter Salles
Brazil
Phil Tippett
USA

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